Edge-gluer



Nov. 22, 1960 MAsATsUGU MlNAMl 2,961,020

EDGE-GLUER 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Oct. 15, 1957 a# M ATTORNEYS Nov. 22,1960 MAsATsuGU MINAMI 2,961,020

EDGE-GLUER Filed Oct. 15. 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 f. l l n.

INVENTOR.

W M M M U R Gavw U T Qu A IY m3. A M

`United States Patent O 2,961,020 EDGE-GLUER Masatsugu Minarni, 1,527Takagicho, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, Japan Filed Oct. 15, 1957, Ser. No. 690,325

3 Claims. (Cl. 144-279) The present invention relates to machines forpreparing wide wood plates by gluing narrow wood sheets at their edges.More particularly, this invention is concerned with a sheet edge-gluingmechanism having two sets of endless chain arranged vertically one abovethe other and in contact with each other along a level surface and beingarranged in such manner as to reduce the intervals between the chainplates with the advancement of the chain, thus producing a lateralpressure on the wood sheets inserted and conveyed horizontally betweenthe upper and lower chain in order to carry out a perfect edge-gluing ofsaid wood sheets.

The object of the present invention is to provide wood plates by gluingedges of ordinary long-slender thin wood sheets, to be used formanufacturing plywood panels.

Other obje-cts, features and advantages will be apparent from thefollowing detailed description taken in combination with theaccompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of the present invention,

Fig. 2 is an enlarged partial plan view taken along the line 2-2 of Fig.l in the direction of the arrows showing the gluing of side edges ofthin wood plates.

Fig. 3 is a transverse section taken along the line 3 3 of Fig. l inythe direction of the arrows.

Fig. 4 is a transverse section taken along the line 4 4 of Fig. l in thedirection of the arrows.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged detail perspective view of a plate and itsconnecting links forming part of the present device.

The figures show only one example embodying the present invention. InFig. l, the frame 1 contains a pair of endless chains 1a and 1b whichare arranged one above the other. That is to say, the upper endlesschain 1a meshes with the driving ychain wheel 2 and the follower chainwheel 3, while the lower endless chain 1b meshes with the driving chainwheel 4 and the follower chain wheel 5. Both of said endless chains arein contact with each other at their adjacent medial portions betweensaid driving `Wheels and said follower chain wheels. Both upper andlower chains are constructed i-n the same way.

Each chain plate 6 is narrow in width in comparison with its length andare of a tongue and groove formation at their side edges. Also, thechain plates are constructed in such a way that, when the intervalbetween adjacent plates is diminished, their side edges are brought intocontact with each other (as shown in Fig. 2) forming a continuous plane.

As shown in Fig. 5, at `both ends of the back face of the chain plate 6there extend bosses 7 and 8 each bearing the shaft 9 which pivotallysupports two connecting links 9a and 9b of equal length, at one end.Said connecting links 9a and 9b are thereby hinged to each chain plate 6and the connecting links 9a and 9b hinged to adjacent chain plates areconnected to each other by a shaft 10 at their lower end (see Figs. land 5).

At each outer end of said shafts 9 and 10, i.e. at

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each en d adjacent the inner face of frame 1 there are attached therollers 11 and 12 respectively.

Both upper and lower chains thus constructed areV guided by groovesprovided in the frame in which they travel. That is to say, the contactsurface between both chains (see Fig. 1) and each two rows of theguiding grooves 13 and 13' of the roller 11 and the guiding grooves 14and 14 of the roller 12 are arranged in symmetry each on an upper andlower side of the contact surface of said chains. The beginning and endportions of guiding grooves 13 and 13' are parallel to said horizontalcontact surface of said chains, but the middle part of the guidinggrooves 14 and 14 between the portion yof the chains corresponding tothe part between lines C and D, shown in Fig. 1, is inclined in theadvancing direction of the chain in such a way that said part isgradually extended away from the horizontal plane.

The beginning portion and end portion of the guiding grooves 14 and 14are constructed parallel to a horizontal plane in `order to feed thechain by the chain wheel as smoothly as possible by making the spacingof the recesses on the peripheral surface of each chain wheel equal tothe spacing of shafts 10 of the connecting links 9a and 9b when ridingin the beginning and end guiding groove portions.

The outermost run of upper chain 1a rides in grooves 15 and 16 and theoutermost run of lower chain 1b rides in grooves 15 and 16. Grooves 16and 16' are inclined outwardly in the advancing directions of theirrespective outermost runs. Thus it is seen that the grooves aresymmetrical about the horizontal contact surface.

The track containing guiding grooves 13 and 14 of the upper chain 1a isarranged for up and down movement on said frame. The track is hung bythe bolts 18 from the transverse beams 17, which are fixed on both sidewalls of the frame, the track being pressed downwardly by the springs 19wound around said bolts. Thus, the upper chain may move in accordancewith the thickness of the thin plates to be glued when the latter areinterposed between the upper and lower chains. Driving gear wheel 20 isXed on the shaft of the driving chain wheel 4 of the lower chain anddriving chain wheel 21 is similarly associated with the upper chain andgear train 22, 23 and 24 is arranged between the driving chain wheels 2and 4.

Gear train 22, 23 and 24 drives chain wheel 2 at the same angularvelocity as chain wheel 4. Chain wheels 2 and 4 rotate in the directionsindicated by arrows in Figure 1.

The heating apparatuses 25 and 25', which are supported by thetransverse beam 17, heat the upper and lower face of the chain andpromote the drying of the binding agent at the edges to be glued andhasten the gluing action.

When the upper and lower chain are moved by the driving wheels 2 and 4in the direction shown by the arrow at the same peripheral speed, on thehorizontal plane on which the upper and lower chain plates move incontact with each other, the rollers 11 mounted on the shafts 9 at theback faces of the chain plates 6 of the upper and lower chains move inthe guiding grooves 13 and 13 parallel to the horizontal plane ofcontact of said chains, while the rollers 12 on the shafts 10 connectingthe links 9a and 9b move in said inclined grooves 14 and 14', so thatthe vertical distance between the rollers 12 and the rollers 11 isincreased gradually. Accordingly the interval between the adjacent chainplates 6 is decreased. Thus the horizontal gap X (Figure 2) between eachadjacent chain plate at the beginning is gradually diminished, and isbrought to zero in accordance with the movement of the chain, and thenthe edges are brought in Y 3 V contact with each other, thus forming awide plate (see Fig. 2).

Now, theupper and lower chains are driven by the driving chain wheels 2and 4 and the thin wood plates W, on the edge surfaces of which abinding agenthas been previously. coated, are inserted between thefollower" chain wheels 3 and 5 one by one in series in such` a way thatthe plates are placed perpendicular to the advancing direction of thechain. The gap X between thel thin plates is previously determined so asto be a little less than the amount of the decrease of the distancebetween the chain plates to be producedby the inclined guiding grooves.Then, at the time when the thin wood plates interposed between the upperand lower chain platesk pass toward the point C (see Fig. 1) duringtheir travel, the gap between each adjacent thin plate begins todecrease, and, at last, the edges comeiu contact with each other, givingthe edge to be glued a lateral pressure.

Moreover, as both upper and lower chain plates come in contact withtheir adjacent plates and their facing tongue and groove edges areengaged with each other forming a single plate, there occurs totalcontact at the contacting surfaces of the interposed wood plates withoutany bending in said plates by heating. Thus even narrow and very thinplates W can be glued at their side edges very rmly. With regards to theform of the chain plate 6, in Fig. 2, only one example is shown, but theedges may be formed with any zigzaz configuration so as to mesh witheach other, and evenv in case these meshing parts do not completelycontact, the narrow plate would still be pressed between upper and lowerchain plates, since their initial interval X is substantially less thanthe initial interval X between chain plates 6.

0f course it should be understood that there may be various dilerentembodiments of the device without departing from the scope of thepresent invention.

Having now particularly described the nature of my invention, I claim:

1. A machine for producing wide wood sheets from a series of relativelynarrow wood plates comprising a supporting fframe, two pairs of drivencog wheels rotatably supported with one pair above the other across`said frame, two series of pivotally connected links each providing anendless chain extending around one of said pair of cog wheels for beingdriven thereby, a plurality of plates each pivotally connected to aconnected pair of said links, and means for guiding each of said linkchains for moving opposing plates of said link chains toward one anotheralong a horizontal plane and for spacing adjacent plates of each linkchain horizontally apart at one end of said frame while progressivelymoving said adjacent plates in a longitudinal direction of said chainsto edge-edge contact at the other end of said frame whereby narrow woodplates having glue on the edges thereof can be placed on said plates atsaid one end of said frame, held in said horizontal plane by saidopposing plates and progressively moved into edge-edge contact in ahorizontal direction by said plates, forming a wide wood sheet thereof.

2. A machine for producing wide wood sheets from a series of relativelynarrow wood plates as claimed in claim l, whereinV said guiding meansconsists of a pair of grooved tracks supported by said frame for each ofsaid link chains with one groove extending horizontally and the othergroove extending on an angle thereto, a plurality of rollers eachcarried by one of said plates and moving in said horizontal track and aplurality of rollers carried by `said links and moving Vin saidangularly extending track.

3. A machine yfor producing wide wood sheets from a series of relativelynarrow wood plates as claimed in claim 1, wherein said plates havevirregular adjacent edges capable of mating when said plates are. broughtinto contact forming a contiguous. surface supporting said wideV woodsheet.

References Cited in me le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,071,999Dike Feb. 23, 1937 2,504,673 Fischer-Schmutz Apr. 18, 195() 2,631,622Bergvall etal Mar. 17, 1953 2,657,160 Croston Oct. 27, 1953

